Life Is A Terribly English Cabaret
The Age
Monday January 2, 2006
Camille O'Sullivan toned down her act for Mrs Henderson Presents. By Greg Burchall.
IT ALL began with a paranoid prime minister. Robert Walpole could handle his enemies inside and outside of politics, but it was these artists, these satirists and lampooners who were undermining his authority and that of his do-nothing Whig government.From 1737, the British Theatre entered its Blue Pencil period. All scripts had to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain who had the power to reject them outright, or make changes that could run from a line or two to whole scenes. Nothing stepped on stage without the Chamberlain's public performance licence.There were ways around this, of course. Plays could be performed without licence in members-only clubs, but the financial rewards were minimal and audiences scanty.Before the Blue Pencil's run ended in 1968, it made appearances in hundreds of plays, from Aristophanes to O'Neill, banning Shaw and eviscerating Ibsen, removing "unpleasant" notions of politics, sex, religion and morality.It led to a lot of self-censorship in the British theatre, but it also led to some ingenious feints, such as the one by Laura Henderson in the 1930s. When the canny widow sought to introduce Moulin Rouge-style nudes to the revues at her struggling Windmill Theatre, she convinced Chamberlain that they would be "art" - like the ones in the National Gallery. He agreed. Provided that, like the ones in the gallery, they didn't move.The story of the Windmill's famous unclad tableaux is told in Stephen Frears' Mrs Henderson Presents, in which provocative cabaret performer Camille O'Sullivan plays Jane, the theatre's principal singer.The 1930s is a period O'Sullivan knows well, but more the raunchy Paris and Berlin scenes than London's staid stages. It was something that initially worried Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, Dirty Pretty Things).The Irish-French singer, who has been revered for her interpretations of Jacques Brel and Kurt Weill, Nick Cave and Tom Waits, can also deliver a killer plummy Frears imitation."People had recommended me to him, but he'd never seen me perform," explains O'Sullivan. "Then he rings up and says, 'I looked at your website. You look bloody dark and dangerous. Do you have any humour?' They were two months into rehearsals and about to start shooting. But it was a good thing it happened that way - if I'd auditioned at the start, I would have made a complete hames (Irish slang for "mess") of the whole thing."But with two weeks to go, Frears rings again and says 'Well, if you work on this bloody thing, can I take cigarettes off you and smoke them outside with you?', and that means you're in."Next began a gruelling round of dance and singing sessions to bring O'Sullivan into the ensemble. Her Jane is feisty and protective of her territory, initially resentful of the theatre's new "attractions", but eventually coming to accept its professionalism.And O'Sullivan keeps her clothes on. "(Jane's) not the kind of girl who would want to scare anybody," she laughs. "What was much harder was performing in this extremely English style - bright, sprightly, smiling all the time, after that darker, more aloof Dietrich style I was used to."It was following those instincts that led O'Sullivan to her "second career" as a performer, after award-winning years as an architect and painter, and learning to walk and use a hand again after a car accident 10 years ago.She recently enjoyed another sell-out season of La Fille du Cirque in Melbourne at the Famous Spiegeltent, which has been like a second home to her for three years, and she is about to open a new show at Dublin's Olympia Theatre.Although Mrs Henderson . . . focuses on the bickering business relationship between Henderson (Judi Dench) and her manager Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins), the experience has given O'Sullivan a taste for film work. Since completing that role, she has portrayed Lola Montez for Irish TV and has more dreaded auditions lined up."When I went in to sing for Stephen Frears and the others they offered me a glass of water. I said: 'No, I'll have a whisky please.' After he finally came to see one of my shows, Frears said, 'Bloody hell. You were dark after all'."Mrs Henderson Presents is screening now on general release.
© 2006 The Age